Welcome!

Savannah Serenade

following immense stone steps up to the riverwalk alley
windswept and receptive I am seeking oracles
as spirits lift the moss covered branches
catalysts arriving from Bonaventure Cemetery
whispering to me that these wrongs will be put right
a bouquet of palm roses for the downtrodden

he dances his terrible contortions, sneers
compassion withers in a furnace of shame
I resist the way that never requires self-sacrifice
screams haunt: only disastrous manifestations are possible
Psyche confronts and demands confidence
assures me obstacles, great choking vines, will be cut away

Moon

despite fear and bewilderment, what remains unsaid,
terricolous vulnerability, dissolution, confusion
the difficulty of the choices I’ve made
I remain open to unexpected possibilities
good omens, the golden bough, creative forces unfurling

High Priestess

again she calls my name, entwining within the heart of the city,
to awareness of what spirits move against me
spreading insecurity and dependence on material concerns
only the heroine that follows her instincts can prevail
who entrusts herself to that which is transcendent

Hanged Man

acknowledging passage from this phase of life
sterile, sublimated to an ideal, an escape from the harrowing past
now I must let go of people entangled for amorphous reasons
crossroads require discernment and dedication to truth
destiny manifests, all philosophical resistance is overwhelmed
Savannah serenade, your mystic secrets coax my surrender

My night is made–a poem from you, with a little Tarot ice cream on the warm peach pie of Savannah nights and self-realization and destiny floating on the southern breeze. Love the intricate allusions (nine arched windows) and amazing imagery (compassion withers in a furnace of shame) all blending for an experience that is as heady as a glass of champagne or the first night with the beloved. Fine poem, and even finer to hear from you. May your journey continue to be one of revelation, discovery and growth. (And safe and stuff, too, of course.)

Oh, you’ve given me such a feast of a comment full of wonderful references. If it wasn’t after 11:00 I’d go get some of that delicious ice cream. I deeply appreciate the encouragement and have truly enjoyed my sojourn so far. It’s is wonderful to be back among such talented and wonderful friends tonight, like a homecoming :).

Such a coincidence. I’ve recently finished reading a book about Tarots as I’ve always been curious about them. Interesting progression of cards by my limited understanding of what they represent and their symbolism. But even without any knowledge of those cards at all, it’s a fascinating read. A journey that seems to start with a question born of doubt and/or dissatisfaction, into personal turmoil in the mind, leading towards quietness, reflection and then letting go to gain freedom.

I love every line. The moon and the section that follows is one that I feel I’m probably at. I like the admission to the confusion and the statement of remaining open to possibilities.

Raven, I so appreciate your engagement with this poem and your informed comment. I left the question out precisely to make the poem more accessible to others and interpretation through their lens of experience. The allusions, symbolism, and meaning are multifaceted, rich, and open to interpretation. Thank you for your kind well wishes. Best to you on your journey as you travel the roads of self discovery and live into your own heroic stories :)!

awesome write as always anna…this develops as it goes…from justice, magician to high priestess to hangman.. quite the journey in different ways… i like how you weave the myth, the surreal with the personal.. wishing you a good time on the road anna

Great work, Anna. In uncertain times, a Tarot can show the leys and imagoes of what’s inside that fates the outside things to come. It is a dark knowing, but then in the midst of great change little more is visible. – B

Bonaventure and Savannah! I had a lovely three day visit and explored the city and cemetery without many breaks… Just couldn’t get enough. We did two ghost walks and I love walking that city at night… so much mystery about that fabulously laid out city. Magic, HIgh Priestess, Moon, Devil, Hanged Man… they are all there! Justice? I hope so… 🙂

This poem is extremely intricate, I love it. The Tarots, weren’t necessarily making sense to me at first glance, probably, no, exactly due to my limited understanding of their varying forms. So I did a little research and came up with one that seemed to really fit the rest of the piece and it’s a journey, a voyage, a contemplation from start to unfinished. Philosophical and again intricate. Love it. Bits of Floriography in here, love that. Symbols abound. Hanging man is my favorite card here, but each passage is so delicately constructed, each felt like my favorite until I reached the Hanging man, and in my research I found out he’s associated with Odin, so perhaps my love of Norse myth made that card a cinch for a favorite…although magician is a close second, but they all are special. Thanks, really enjoyed the read. Glad you are enjoying Savannah, a favorite of mine, from my traveling days 🙂

Fred, glad to hear Savannah is a favorite and that I’ve done it some justice here. I thought you’d enjoy the connection between the Hanged Man and Odin. I greatly appreciate your recognition of the depth of construction here :).

Hi, Anna! I’ve worked with a now out-of-print Tarot deck that features wonderful ancient Egyptian images for years. Which deck are you using?

Were these cards randomly drawn and laid down in a Star Guides configuration, by any chance? In response to a particular question?

Justice — the search for balance and equilibrium — should not be mistaken for judgment, though. It is really about evaluation that cuts away illusion. It says you should get all the facts and not jump to easy solutions. If The Hangman is the payoff of this reading, it seems you can expect all your reflections between heaven and earth to lead to a turnaround and higher wisdom soon. The call of the Tarot in general and of that card in particular always seems to be to relocate our centers from the egos to our higher selves, to turn away from the superficial and material to the spiritual. I hope you are finding true insights for yourself!

Incidentally, a poetry professor who is a friend of mine here — has been saying for the past year that he is writing a complete Tarot deck. Apparently a poem on each card. Looks like yours is a similar effort on a smaller scale.

I actually don’t have a deck, a woman did the reading for me. Wow, this is wonderful additional insight! You clearly have a long and productive relationship with the tarot. Thank you for sharing some of your knowledge with me :)!

oh I love this! how wonderfully creative and incredibly clever (i.e. nine arched windows appear, signifiers of divine love)! the tarot play – and to end with the hanged man was very well executed (no pun intended haha) – this was a truly great read for me tonight – enjoyed it and wish you luck on your journey! 🙂

I’ve missed you Anna. Not that I’ve had much time with my life being re-routed to friend/nurse/caretaker..leaving little time for writing (most bad) and less time for reading (my bad). Still I forge ahead because so much talent lies here – such as yours. See you were so clever, using the Major Arcana for stanzas or more correctly parts of the poem (so brilliantly). I once meant to take each one and write a poem and have a book. I wrote one – The Magician, and then didn’t come up with anything else to say that I liked as well. This was genius weaving its way through images both personal and symbolic – telling a lay – as a good one should. Loved reading your work again!

I’m sorry to hear about your time constraints; I’ve been remiss in reading on the road. I especially hope you find some writing time soon as I find it helps me process stress. I can’t say how much I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment on my poem.

Tarot references…perfect for the likes of Savannah. I’ve visited that city a few times and especially love exploring the cemeteries. It’s a city of mystery, ghosts and magic…and beauty. Enjoy yourself, Anna. xoxo

Thanks Becky, I do find it hectic to try to write and edit on the road and it’s great to hear that some of my usual poetic concerns have come through in this piece. The stillness and gravitas is likely one of the gifts of middle age :D.

Robert Anton Wilson

Semantic noise also seems to haunt every communication system. A man may sincerely say, ‘I love fish,’ and two listeners may both hear him correctly, yet the two will neurosemantically file this in their brains under opposite categories. One will think the man loves to dine on fish, and the other will think he loves to keep fish (in an aquarium).

Witold Gombrowicz

“Here is the writer who with all his heart and soul, with his art, in anguish and travail offers nourishment – there is the reader who’ll have none of it, and if he wants, it’s only in passing, offhandedly, until the phone rings. Life’s trivia are your undoing. You are like a man who has challenged a dragon to a fight but will be yapped into a corner by a little dog.” Ferdydurke

I’m an Executive Director with a doctorate in education, a consultant, painter, photographer, composer, poet, and vocalist.

Gustav Flaubert

Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.

Dušan “Charles” Simić

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

Monique Wittig

"Language casts sheaves of reality upon the social body, stamping it and violently shaping it... Language as a whole gives everyone the same power of becoming an absolute subject through its exercise. But gender, an element of language, works upon this ontological fact to annul it as far as women are concerned and corresponds to a constant attempt to strip them of the most precious thing for a human being - subjectivity. Gender is an ontological impossibility because it tries to accomplish the division of Being. But Being is not divided. God or Man as being are One and whole. So what is this divided Being introduced into language through gender? It is an impossible Being, it is a Being that does not exist, an ontological joke, a conceptual maneuver to wrest from women what belongs to them by right: conceiving of oneself as a total subject through the exercise of language. The result of the imposition of gender, acting as a denial at the very moment when one speaks, is to deprive women of the authority of speech, and to force them to make their entrance in a crablike way, particularizing themselves and apologizing profusely. The result is to deny them any claim to the abstract, philosophical, political discourses that give shape to the social body. Gender then must be destroyed. The possibility of its destruction is given through the very exercise of language. For each time I say 'I' I reorganize the world from my point of view and through abstraction I lay claim to universality. This fact holds true for every locutor. "

W.S. Merwin

All the things that really matter to us are impossible...Writing poetry is impossible. I don't know how to write a poem. A poem - there has to be a part of it that is not my own will; it comes from somewhere that I don't know. There is so much that comes out of what we don't know and what we don't have any control over. I think that one of the only things we can learn as we get older is a certain humility. - from Doing the Impossible, Yes Magazine, Issue 59

Thomas Aquinas

Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.